Animal charity in €500,000 losses

The LSPCA has had to curtail some of its rescue work and focus on securing more funds after donations invested in bank shares crashed

O
ne of the country’s oldest animal welfare charities has lost more than
€500,000 in donations invested in bank shares that collapsed in value.
Shares held in the name of the Limerick Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (LSPCA) which were once worth €567,124, are now valued at
just over €1,000.

Faced with these losses, the organisation, which was established in 1882, has
had to curtail some of its rescue work and focus instead on securing more
funds.

The LSPCA invested heavily in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank shares to
generate dividends to finance its day-to-day work. But it is now relying on
street collections and an annual donation from the agriculture department to
fund its activities.

Eugene Hayes, one of the LSPCA’s trustees, said that the 2008 banking crisis
had all but wiped out the society’s investment fund.